17% of personalisation apps and 8% of entertainment apps have aggressive ad networks
With approximately 50 per cent of free apps powered by ad networks, research has found that five per cent of these have ‘aggressive’ ad networks.
Mobile security company Lookout, who created the research, defined an aggressive network as one which pushed out-of-app ads, changed browser and desktop settings, and accessed personally identifiable information without suitable notification or transparency.
It its Mobile App Advertising Guidelines: A Framework for Encouraging Innovation While Protecting Privacy, Lookout discovered that on Google Play, apps in the personalisation category, such as wallpaper apps, have the highest percentage of aggressive ad networks (at 17 per cent), closely followed by Comics (13 per cent), Arcade & Action (10 per cent) and Entertainment (8 per cent).
Jules Polonetsky, director and co-chair of the Future of Privacy Forum, said: “People want to have confidence and trust that they’re not being compromised while on devices that have access to their most personal information.
“For years many years, desktop users were plagued with programs that triggered pop-ups, added unwanted toolbars, and changed homepages. These guidelines make it clear, while mobile marketing business models and practices are still developing, some practices are out-of-bounds. That’s good news for both consumers and responsible businesses.”
The guidelines look at requirements and suggested best practices in the areas of: transparency and clarity of data collection; individual control over information collected; ad delivery and display behavior; collection and retention of personal or device-specific data; and secure transport of sensitive data.
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